1.
Requirements for a Computing-Literate
Society
Mark Guzdial
School of Interactive Computing

2.
The Two Cultures

3.
Story
I. Our Job: The first computer scientists set the goal to
achieve a Computing-Literate Society.
II. Challenges to Achieving a Computing-Literate Society
• Access and Diversity
• Inverse Lake Wobegon Effect
• Unanswered research questions of policymakers
III. Inventing New Kinds of Computing Education
• Story #1: Contextualized Computing Education.
• Story #2: Understanding the Needs of High School CS Teachers.

4.
Papert, Logo, DiSessa, Boxer

5.
1961 MIT Sloan School
Symposium

6.
Learn Programming
to Re-Think Process Everywhere
• Alan Perlis argued that
computer science should be
part of a liberal education.
• Explicitly, he argued that
all students should learn to
program.
• Why?
• Because Computer
Science is the study of
process.
• Automated execution of
process changes
everything
• Including how we think about
things we already know

7.
Elias: Does it have to be programming?
• Licklider: Peter, I think the first apes who tried to talk with
one another decided that learning language was a
dreadful bore…But some people write poetry in the
language we speak.
• Perlis: The purpose of a course in programming is to
teach people how to construct and analyze processes…A
course in programming is concerned with abstraction: the
abstraction of constructing, analyzing, and describing
processes…The point is to make the students
construct complex processes out of simpler ones….A
properly designed programming course will develop
these abilities better than any other course.
7

8.
“A handful of people, having
no relation to the will of
society, having no
communication with the rest
of society, will be taking
decisions in secret which
are going to affect our lives
in the deepest sense.”
The Power and Fear of Algorithms
• The Economist (Sept.,
2007) spoke to the
algorithms that control us,
yet we don’t understand.
• Credit Ratings, Adjustable
Rate Mortgages, Search
Rankings
• C.P. Snow foresaw this in
1961.
• Those who don’t understand
algorithms, can’t understand
how the decisions are made.

9.
II. Challenges
• Access and Diversity: We aren’t reaching
everyone.
• Inverse Lake Wobegon Effect: We think
we know more than we do
• Public policy-makers are asking
unanswered research questions

10.
Computing education in US
by-the-numbers
10
• ~25,000 high schools in the United States.
• 2,525 AP Computer Science teachers in the
United States.
• American Association of Physics Teachers
(AAPT) founded in 1930.
• NCTM founded in 1920
• Computer Science Teachers Association
(CSTA) founded in 2005.

11.
High School Participation in
AP STEM Disciplines
— Chris Stephenson, CSTA, 2010
In 2014,
38K exam-
takers

12.
Thanks
to Brian
Danielak

13.
Lake Wobegon Effect

14.
Inverse Lake Wobegon Effect
• We only know the
top half.
• People who take
CS in
undergraduate are
above average.
• People who get
access to CS
education are
among the most
privileged in

15.
Policymakers’ Questions
• US NSF Alliances to Broaden Participation in
Computing
• “Georgia Computes!”
• Focus: Activities in middle and high school, with lots of teacher
professional development.
• CAITE
• Focus: higher-education pathways focused on community
colleges in underserved regions.
• Merged to provide support to US states in improving
computing education: Expanded Computing Education
Pathways Alliance (ECEP)

16.
What We’ve Learned: States are Diverse
• In some states, the Department of Education controls everything.
In other states, individual districts make most decisions, and the state
Department of Education controls little.
• In some: Advanced Placement is valued.
In others: Advanced Placement is considered elitist. “Not for our
kids.”
• In most states, Computer Science is classified as Career and
Technical Education.
In some: CTE teachers are in schools, so CS can integrate with math
and science.
In others: CTE is in separate vocational high schools.

17.
Issues from States: Make it a requirement?
• South Carolina: Requires CS for graduation,
for over 30 years.
• But it’s not really CS. Should they change?
• Can we teach CS to everyone?
• Research Questions:
• Can we teach CS to special needs students?
• What are the challenges of teaching CS to
English Language Learners (ELL)?

18.
Issues from States: Invest in K-12 and Teachers
• Utah: Focusing on ages 5-10 CS.
• Only 104 students took AP CS in 2014, only 4 female.
• Research Questions:
• How much of CS can we teach to children 5-
10?
• Does teaching CS in early grades lead to long
term improved attitudes towards CS?
• How is the cost difference of scaling CS in
elementary school?
• How do teach teachers CS, without losing them
to industry?

19.
Issues in States: URM Differences
• Georgia Computes had
significant impact on
women and Hispanic AP
CS exam-takers.
• Less impact on Black.
• Most states have lower
AP CS participation and
pass rates for Black
students than Hispanic
and female students.
• Why?
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Total in Georgia
Women
Black
Hispanic

20.
How do we meet society’s need for computing
education?
20
• We need to answer the research questions of policymakers
who want computing education in their states.
• We need classes that show CS to be a possible career path, a
rigorous domain, and a useful set of skills and knowledge.
• We need teachers—more well-prepared, confident, and
retained computing teachers – who aren’t necessarily software
developers
• We need to find ways to help adult professionals learn
computing when they discover that they need it.
#1
#2

21.
Story #1:
The Role of Context
• Fall 1999:
All students at Georgia Tech must take a course in
computer science.
• Considered part of General Education, like
mathematics, social science, humanities…
• 1999-2003: Only one course met the requirement.
• Shackelford’s pseudocode approach in 1999
• Later Scheme: How to Design Programs (MIT Press)

22.
One-class CS1: Pass (A, B, or C) vs.
WDF (Withdrawal, D or F)
Success Rates in CS1 from Fall 1999 to
Spring 2002 (Overall: 78%)
Architecture 46.7%
Biology 64.4%
Economics 53.5%
History 46.5%
Management 48.5%
Public Policy 47.9%

23.
Contextualized Computing
Education
• What’s going on?
• Research results: Computing is
“tedious, boring, irrelevant”
• Since Spring 2003, Georgia Tech
teaches three introductory CS
courses.
• Based on Margolis and Fisher’s
“alternative paths”
• Each course introduces computing
using a context (examples,
homework assignments, lecture
discussion) relevant to majors.
• Make computing relevant by teaching it
in terms of what computers are good for
(from the students’ perspective)

24.
def negative(picture):
for px in getPixels(picture):
red=getRed(px)
green=getGreen(px)
blue=getBlue(px)
negColor=makeColor(255-red,255-green,255-blue)
setColor(px,negColor)
def clearRed(picture):
for pixel in getPixels(picture):
setRed(pixel,0)
def greyscale(picture):
for p in getPixels(picture):
redness=getRed(p)
greenness=getGreen(p)
blueness=getBlue(p)
luminance=(redness+blueness+greenness)/3
setColor(p, makeColor(luminance,luminance,luminance))

25.
Media Computation:
Teaching in a Relevant Context
• Presenting CS topics
with media projects and
examples
• Iteration as creating negative
and grayscale images
• Indexing in a range as
removing redeye
• Algorithms for blending both
images and sounds
• Linked lists as song fragments
woven to make music
• Information encodings as
sound visualizations
25

26.
Results: “Media Computation”
86.5% 88.4% 84.7% 89.9% 91.9% 87.5% 80.3% 82.9% 77.5%
12.5% 10.3%
14.7%
9.4% 7.6% 11.4%
19.7% 17.1% 22.5%
TotalFall03
Fem
alesFall03M
alesFall03
TotalSp04Fem
alesSp04M
alesSp04TotalFall04
Fem
alesFall04M
alesFall04
WDF
Pass
Change in Success rates in CS1 “Media
Computation” from Spring 2003 to Fall 2005
(Overall 85%)
Architecture 46.7% 85.7%
Biology 64.4% 90.4%
Economics 54.5% 92.0%
History 46.5% 67.6%
Management 48.5% 87.8%
Public Policy 47.9% 85.4%

27.
Voices from Media
Computation Students
• “I just wish I had more time to play around with that and
make neat effects. But JES [IDE for class] will be on
my computer forever, so… that’s the nice thing about
this class is that you could go as deep into the
homework as you wanted. So, I’d turn it in and then me
and my roommate would do more after to see what we
could do with it.”
• “I dreaded CS, but ALL of the topics thus far have been
applicable to my future career (& personal) plans—
there isn't anything I don't like about this class!!!"
• "Media Computation is a CS class but with less
severity. The media part of the class is extremely
visually interesting. I would only take another CS class
if it were Media Computation."

28.
Glitch Game Testers
Betsy DiSalvo and Amy
Bruckman
• Engaging African-American
Teen Males in CS.
• Hiring them as game-testers,
to get them to go below the
surface of the technology.
• Of the 33 young men who
participated in the program,
all completed high school
and over half took post-
secondary computing
DiSalvo, IEEE CG&A, 2014

29.
Story #2: Understanding
CS Teacher’s Needs
To be successful, CS teachers need:
• A sense of identity
• Where does that sense of identity come from?
• Confidence in their ability to teach
• For US CS teachers, from community and role models. (Lijun
Ni, 2011)
• More professional learning: CK and PCK

30.
Teachers need their Communities
“I’m a better Math teacher, just because I’ve
had so much support. Whenever I have
problems, I can talk with the people that I work
with, most of who have taught for many years
in Math.…Every day, I’m eating lunch with
Math teachers.
With Computer Science, I’ve got nobody to
talk to.”
From Lijun Ni’s 2011 thesis
on CS teacher identity

31.
Disciplinary Commons
Group of educators from diverse
institutions who teach within the same
subject area meeting monthly over an
academic year.
In monthly increments, the
participants prepare a course portfolio.
Goals
1. To document and share knowledge about student
learning in Computer Science classrooms.
2. To establish practices for the scholarship of
teaching by making it public, peer-reviewed, and
amenable for future use and development by
other educators. [1]
[1] Tenenberg, J. and Fincher, S. Opening the door of the computer science classroom: the
Disciplinary Commons. SIGCSE Bull., 39, 1 2007, 514-518.

32.
DCCE in Georgia
Disciplinary Commons for Computing Educators
Adaptation – High School teachers AND
University
Goals
1. Creating community
2. Sharing resources and knowledge of how
things are taught in other contexts
AND…
3. Supporting student recruitment within the
high school environment
Work by Briana
Morrison, Lijun Ni, Ria
Galanos, & Allison Elliott
Tew

33.
Building Community
Partnerships Before (PRE) DCCE Partnerships After (POST) DCCE
Morrison, Ni, & Guzdial, ICER

34.
Improving Recruiting
• 302% increase in number of AP CS students in the year
following their participation in the DCCE
• Year of participation – 122 students enrolled
• Next year – 491 students pre-registered
• One teacher 700% increase (3 to 24 students)
• Reasons:
1. Venue to share recruitment ideas
2. Sense of community (keep up morale during
recruiting)

35.
Teacher Confidence
“I think DCCE definitely did help [me feel
more confident]. I think it was just being a part
of a community of teachers that you can
actually talk with about teaching. That gives
you confidence when you don’t teach it in a
vacuum.”

36.
How do you prepare your students
for the AP CS exam?
36
• “Everything in that class is more or less an
assessment. They’re supposed to read certain
sections in the book, and then they have quizzes
over the reading. After they do the reading
assignments, they have Gridworld case study
quizzes and also Gridworld case study segments
of code that they will go in and manipulate to
change to get the things in the Gridworld case
study to react different ways. Those are pretty
much graded as labs or programs or quizzes.”

37.
How do you prepare your students
for the AP CS exam?
37
• “Everything in that class is more or less an
assessment. They’re supposed to read certain
sections in the book, and then they have quizzes
over the reading. After they do the reading
assignments, they have Gridworld case study
quizzes and also Gridworld case study segments
of code that they will go in and manipulate to
change to get the things in the Gridworld case
study to react different ways. Those are pretty
much graded as labs or programs or quizzes.”

38.
How do you prepare your students
for the AP CS exam?
38
• And then if I read these [student quizzes], I can see any
misconceptions or gaps in what I’ve done. I get a picture
in my mind of where the current class is. Making them do
the explaining is new this year. I’m seeing them do a lot
better there. I‘ll do like little code (assignments) that
they’ll write once a week. They have to write it by hand
away from the computer, and I’ll read that and write them
comments on what they’re doing and help them grade it
with a rubric, and also pass them back after I’ve read
them for them to grade, too, and have them look at what
was catching it or where it didn’t quite get to it.

39.
How do you prepare your students
for the AP CS exam?
39
• And then if I read these [student quizzes], I can see any
misconceptions or gaps in what I’ve done. I get a picture
in my mind of where the current class is. Making them do
the explaining is new this year. I’m seeing them do a lot
better there. I‘ll do like little code (assignments) that
they’ll write once a week. They have to write it by hand
away from the computer, and I’ll read that and write them
comments on what they’re doing and help them grade it
with a rubric, and also pass them back after I’ve read
them for them to grade, too, and have them look at what
was catching it or where it didn’t quite get to it.

40.
A successful CS teacher…
40
• Writes assignments and comments, not code.
• Guides students through rubrics.
• Focus on learning activities (coding away from
the computer, explaining).
• Minimal focus on assessment.
…is not a Software Developer.

41.
Teaching CS Teachers online
41
• Can we reach more potential CS teachers online?
• Emphasizing the skills and knowledge of successful CS
teachers
• Providing support for a sense of community

42.
An Ebook for Teaching
CS Teachers

43.
Parsons Problems

44.
Findings: What do users
do in an ebook?
Ericson, Guzdial, &
Morrison, ICER 2015

45.
Conclusions
• It’s a foundational CS problem to develop a
computing-literate society.
• The challenges are enormous – we are far from
our goal and don’t know how to get there.
• Two lessons from our work:
1. Providing a context that matches learner interests improves
motivation and retention.
2. Teachers don’t need to be software developers. They need
community, confidence, and more learning options beyond
apprenticeship.

46.
Many thanks!
• Colleagues: Barbara Ericson, Tom McKlin, Rick
Adrion, Renee Fall, Brad Miller, Ria Galanos, Allison
Elliott Tew, Lijun Ni, & Briana Morrison
• Our Funders:
US National Science Foundation
• Statewide BPC Alliance: Project “Georgia Computes!”
http://www.gacomputes.org
• Expanding Computing Education Pathways Alliance,
http://expandingcomputing.org
• CCLI and CPATH Grants, and now CE21 and IUSE to produce ebooks
• Georgia’s Department of Education
• GVU Center, and Institute for People and Technology
(iPaT) at Georgia Tech

47.
Thank you!
• http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~mark.guzdial
• Lab: http://home.cc.gatech.edu/csl
• Ebook Access:
http://ebooks.cc.gatech.edu/TeachCSP-Python
• Media Computation:
http://mediacomputation.org
• Institute for Computing Education at Georgia Tech:
• http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt
• Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP):
• http://ecepalliance.org